Many industries produce large amounts of solid-liquid mixtures or slurries as by-products or waste material. Slurries also occur naturally in various environments, such as in stream beds and lakes. Various devices have been employed to “de-water” or otherwise separate a liquid faction from a mixture of liquids and solids.
Vacuum-type systems, sometimes in conjunction with filter media, have been used in the past to accomplish a desired separation of the liquids from the slurry. In bulk operations when a constant liquid flow cannot be maintained by action of conventional vacuum pumps, the conventional pump will lose its prime or cavitate with a resulting loss of efficiency in pumping capability. Therefore a need exists for an efficient system of liquid-solid separation which can operate when the material pumped by the vacuum pump is made up of liquids, gases or solids or a mixture of two or more of these.